When You Are Falling, Dive

Many years ago, I counseled a woman who was bitterly grieving a loss that had occurred 50 years earlier. She recalled details as if they had happened yesterday. She was entrenched in her story. I don’t know whether her story shifted at some later point, but I was touched by her relentless pain. She taught me that there must be another way to deal with our pain, and I set out to discover what those other ways might be. I knew when major change occurred in my life, I wanted to create a new story.

Today’s guest on Voices For Healing Talk Radio shares a path to doing just that based on his book, “When You Are Falling, Dive: Lessons in the Art of Living.” Author and teacher Mark Matousek interviewed a dozen or so people whose lives were touched by pain and darkness and who turned their lives around, created a new story and are living full lives.

When we know we are not here forever and when we develop an attitude that everything that happens offers possibility to discover ourselves anew and create a new life story, we can begin to move away from criticism, blame and bitterness and develop parts of ourselves we didn’t know we could become.

Mark says that once we grieve our loss and begin to adapt, if we focus on what we love and what gives our life meaning, we can tap into our inner creativity and write a new story about who and what we are. We like a sort of certainty-I know I do-that what we have and who we are will continue on. Of course this is not true. Events change our lives, we adapt and grow, we fall down, we get back up. I hope you will listen to the interview with Mark and check out his books on Amazon. His work is not to be missed!